THE GOLF IS OPTIONAL, THE MIRTH IS REQUIRED! The only blog detailing PSU Track and Field, (not always great!) Golf, Physics topics and great videos at the same time! An eclectic mish-mash (mess) of just about everything imaginable. Penn State Track and Field Alumni Golfers have honored PSU Track/XC, Coach Harry Groves and abused golf courses throughout Happy Valley since 2002. Help spread the word!

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"Friendship, physics, and philosophy---this blog has it all."

-Anonymous, 2011.

"I enjoy what you are doing with this blog. It is truly the only reason to have a Facebook account."-Darryl Jones.

"Light yourself on fire and then roll in broken glass to put out the fire!"-from Isaiah Harris's Twitter Feed, explaining how to replicate the feeling after an 800M race."Even pit bulls call him Coach."-Brian Mount, reacting to a visit to Coach Groves from Hunter Backenstose's pit bull, Blanche.

"Keep up the great work."-Nick Scarpello, after winning the 2016 Carlsbad 5K.

"Goodbye to all that. (Politics) I am turning into Jeremiah Johnson, a shunner."-Rob Whiteside, walking the Appalachian Trail.

"I'd rather see you laying in a gutter with your head split open than to see you run like that." -Coach Groves, following a poor showing of 800M runners at a Beaver Stadium Meet, late 70's.

"You do a fantastic job."-Phil Caraher.

"You are amazing at blogging."-Walt Chadwick.

"Best blog out there."-Phil Passen.

"...it tops all sites I've seen with its sense of humor."-George Brose, author of the website Once Upon a Time in the Vest, about our humble blog.

"Great post as usual DFB!"-Darryl Jones.

"You just don't f*** with a f*****."-sage advice from Coach Groves, as told to Tim Backenstose and me, 5/17/14.

"When I was a kid, I saw an illegal dice game in the bathroom at Franklin Field."-Matthew Groves, 2013, remembering the Penn Relays Carnival.

"Don't sit next to Balkey and Artie at a track meet...You'll end up talking about hockey for 3 hours."-Coach Groves to Rebecca Donaghue, 2013.

"The first 45 mile week I ever ran, I ran in the first 3 days at PSU- Thank you very much, Bruce Baden!"-Larry Mangan, 2012.

"If it takes longer than a paragraph, you don't have anything to say anyway."-Coach Grovesat the 2012 Track Alumni Dinner"If you can't get excited for The Penn Relays than damn it, you aint got no soul!"-Coach Groves, as reported by Matt Lincoln at the 2012 Penn Relays.

"Athletics is for education and recreation, nothing else. Winning is important only in that you learn more."-Coach Harry Groves, 5/21/2011 at the Alumni "Run"."... for a brief time, I'm the greatest Track Coach in the world."-Coach Harry Groves, at his Retirement 2006.

"You must do something about the cheating!"-Coach Harry Groves, after golfing two holes with each foursome in 2009.

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Thursday, December 31, 2015

I'm upping the complexity of the blog a bit. Hope all of you can keep up!

The last 2 Semi-Finals in the Performance of the Year Poll will be conducted simultaneously. One will be on the left sidebar and one will be on the right sidebar. Be sure to visit the full web site and vote for your top three in both!!!

Semi Final #2: Left Side Bar

Darrell Hill 66' 2.5" School Record in the Shot Put in first meet of the year.

Monday, December 28, 2015

I think it's in there somewhere. The right to vote in the Semi-Finals forPerformance of the Year on the left sidebar of the full web site...

Who has really bothered to read the whole thing anyway? But I'm pretty sure it's in there near the place where it asks that you continue to click on the ads in order to garner some much needed funds for the blog maintenance. Ben Franklin was a wily and shrewd businessman. I'm pretty sure he would be on my side.

Saturday, December 26, 2015

It's time to vote for the Performance of the Year again. We will start out with a random selection of the nearly thirty nominations in the first of three Semi-Final rounds. You have to actually visit the full web site in order to vote for up to three performances to make it to the final round.

While you are there, don't forget to click on some of the advertisements in order to earn us some money for continued web site expenses. And check out the live web camera of me blogging away at Blog Central on the very bottom of the entire page!

Here are the first set of this year's nominations:Go to the left sidebar of the full web site to vote for three (3) to make it to the Finals.

Womens XC team wins the 2015 Mid-Atlantic Cross Country title.

Ron Moore spreads the word in numerous Ultra-Marathons with his Alumni Singlet.

Coach Gondak's entire coaching resume for 2014 and 2015.

Brannon Kidder second in the NCAA Outdoor 800M.

Glen Burkhardt crawling across the line to make the NCAA 10,000M Finals.

Thursday, December 24, 2015

With the combination of the AIAW results from 1975-1980 and the NCAA results from 1981 to the present, we finally have complete results of the Womens Collegiate Championships. Those who finished in the top 50 of any of those Championships are included in the rankings. A complex, flawed and arbitrary method was used to rank them according to my whim and mood. I was persistent to find all these results so that I could include some friends I have actually run some miles with. Merry Christmas to Patty, Mary, Kathy, Liz, Kris and Heather.

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

I take a lot of heat for running almost all of my miles on a treadmill. But I do occasionally brave the outdoors. And the most I ever ran on a treadmill was 20 miles. This guy won't have the outdoor option at all when he "runs the London Marathon".

The current record for treadmill running of a marathon in space is held by a woman! Sunita Williamsran the Boston Marathon in 4:24 while strapped to the machine by sophisticated bungee cords and duct tape in 2007. The newer machine should be much nicer.

Our very own Liz Cunningham almost became an astronaut and could have easily eclipsed that mark! (Thanks to Official PhysicistBrian Boyer for that tidbit.)

And a timely episode of the Muppets "Pigs In Space" just for the heck of it.

Monday, December 21, 2015

Hello everyone in the Penn State Track and Field Alumni Group Universe!

Attached is a picture of Coach Groves and
Santa. Santa stopped to see him a few days back; Santa wanted to get some
inside information from Coach as to which of Coach's boys have been naughty or
nice. (You girls all got a pass from Coach this year!) You can tell by the grin on Coach's face that some of the boys have
a reason to be worried this year.

Sunday, December 20, 2015

The cost of drones has really been coming down, but it is still prohibitive for a simple sorta-doctor like me. Combine that with the new regulations from the FAA coming, and I figured the dream was dead. But then along came OnagoFly, the micro drone with a cost that won't break the bank and a size that the FAA won't worry about.

Saturday, December 19, 2015

The Organization persisted for 2 years and some teams even ran in both Championships. But for all intents the NCAA sucker punched the AIAW in a bitter street fight (and Here) and stole everything. Title IX played a role in the demise of the female-only organization.

But Penn State was there on the line in Seattle, Washington at the 1980 AIAW Cross Country Championships, finishing in 4th place.

Heather Carmichael 24th 17:42

Mary Rawe 26th 17:44

Peggy Cleary 62nd 18:14

Patty Murnane 66th 18:16

Natalie Updegrove 69th 18:18

Doreen Startare 155th 18:58

Magda Kubasiewicz 193rd 19:29

This adds Mary Rawe to the ranks of the Greatest PSU Women Cross Country runners. (One of the main reasons I was persistent in getting these complete results!) The Final Rankings will be coming soon!Top Movies 1980:

Two Nittany Lions placed in the top 10 of the 1979 AIAW Cross Country Championships. Fourth place finisher Kathy Mills was joined by Heather Carmichael in 8th place. The team finished in third behind first time winner North Carolina State and Oregon.

This cements Patty Murnane's name on the listing of Greatest PSU Womens XC Runners. Coming Soon.

Thursday, December 17, 2015

There was a lot of opposition to having the 1978 Championships at altitude when Colorado submitted its bid at the 1977 AIAW race. But somehow, they got the bid anyway (sound familiar!?). It paid off for Colorado only with the individual win by Mary Decker. The race turned out to be a good one anyway, with the Penn State Women ending up in third place overall.

Notice the fine finish by honorary Alum Martha White Collins for Virginia! And our first mention of Sue Hollick (Crowe) on these pages. Did you know that I was responsible for Sue joining the team. Just as I was instrumental in getting the Wolfe twins to join us! (Scout's Honor)

Patty Murnane Nosack just misses out on being included in the pantheon of "Greatest" PSU XC runners. But never fear, there is 2 years of results to come!

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Annie Hall "Sometimes when I'm driving... on the road at night... I see two
headlights coming toward me. Fast. I have this sudden impulse to turn
the wheel quickly, head-on into the oncoming car. I can anticipate the
explosion. The sound of shattering glass. The... flames rising out of
the flowing gasoline." Christopher Walken as Duane Hall.

The AIAW XC Championships started in 1975, but the first All-American Team wasn't chosen until the 1977 race. That happens to be the year that our very own Kathy MillsParker dominated the field. Our 2nd and 3rd team members were very high in the field with Kris Bankes garnering the final of 15 AA positions. But that left out Liz Berry Larsen, the 16th finisher that day! Other scorers that day were Hillary Noden and Mary Rawe (Camp Hill's phenom and future wife of our own Coach extraordinaire Tom Rapp). The sixth and seventh runners were Donna Gardner and Penny Fales.

Tom Rapp, Mary Rawe Rapp with Tom's ex-roommate Larry Mangan.

Here's some bits from the Eastern Kentucky University Special Collections Archive:

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

It was like it was yesterday. I was almost paying attention to what was going on around me. Gerald Ford was President and Chevy Chase was injuring his back making fun of him. Woodstock was a distant memory, overtaken by Disco of all things. I even owned a pair of platform shoes to go with my Leisure Suit.

Monday, December 14, 2015

Brian Boyer, still our onlyGroup's Official Physicist because Ron Moore apparently can't golf (hee hee hee), chimed in with news of additional Alums on the turf in San Francisco for the Club National Cross Country Meet. Both Harry Stants and Tom McGlynn placed highly in the Masters Mens 10K with some really good times.

Sunday, December 13, 2015

The Penn State Team had its first of the year Indoor Meet, the Blue-White Warmup Meet before Finals and heading home for the holidays. But there still were some Penn State Alumni running over hill and dale at the USATF Club Cross Country Championships in San Francisco. Bridget Franek placed 16th in the Womens 6K in 20:31. Matt Fischer and Nick Scarpello ran fine races in 40th and 50th place in the Mens 10K. Casimir Loxsom ran with his Brooks Beast team in a fine tune up for his upcoming Olympic push.

Friday, December 11, 2015

First up on our review of the complete AIAW (Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women) Archives supplied by the University of Maryland's Special Collections Archives, is team Power Rankings of Cross Country Teams. (Thanks to the help of Michael Henry!)

Our lowly Math Intern warmed up by using a simple formula for determining the strength of a School's results for all 6 years that Penn State ran Cross Country in the pre-NCAA years. He simply assigned a point value in reverse order to all participating teams in the field each of the 6 years. There were team totals of 19, 23, 23, 23, 24 and 25 teams for a maximum total of a 137 points. He then added up the totals to reveal....

Penn State was the top team in the nation despite never winning the title outright. Two second places, two third places and at least a 5th place finish in each of the years helped the Nittany Lions outpace four-time Champion Iowa State and two-time Champion North Carolina State. Oregon actually sneaked into second place overall.

Thursday, December 10, 2015

I really do use the computer daily to obtain more knowledge. With the caveat that misinformation is voluminous, just about everything you can ask can be googled in mere seconds. I prefer Google just because it is the one I started with. It's why I plan on buying another Palm cellphone as soon as they start selling one again! It's also why I still have my original Compuserve email address in perpetuity.

But what did us Neanderthals and Idiots do before the internet, you youngsters may ask. Well, we used the Google of the times, the wonderful folks at the New York Public Library.

For the price of a stamp, and another self-addressed stamped envelope, these incredible people would search for your answers and get back to you with a reply and citations in 2 to 3 weeks! I used my snail-mail Google many times, and was never disappointed.

So that's why I have granted Officer status to the 2 Archivists at Eastern Kentucky University and the University of Maryland. Michael Henry will be deemed a Digital Archive god (small g so as not to offend anyone!) for helping me finally round up the complete results of the AIAW era of Penn State Cross Country Championships. This will put our Math Intern back to the basement for the final calculations for the All-Time Greatest Penn State Women XC Runners. It will add a few friends to the list too!

Coming Soon! With complete coverage of all 6 years of top-notch performances!

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

At least there is somebody willing to buck the trend and actually say "Merry Christmas"! But then Coach was never quite politically correct. Christmas is never exclusionary in any way. Everyone is invited, just as our little Group is open to everyone. Those not celebrating the holiday (or our Group) are always still in our thoughts. Thanks go to Greg Fredericks who brings us this picture and does so much more for Coach than is imaginable every day. The best of the Season to all!

Monday, December 7, 2015

TheAtlantic Ten Conferencewas an on-again, off-again conference for Penn State Cross Country. It began as the Eastern 8 Conference in 1975 with the original members of Villanova, Duquesne, Penn State, West Virginia, George Washington, Massachusetts, Pittsburgh, and Rutgers. Cross Country started in 1978 and Penn State did not participate in some of those years (1979-1981). But we dominated the conference whenever we were part of it. (1978, 1982-1990)

Championships:

1978 28 points.

1982 30 points.

1986 27 points.

1987 21 points.

1988 25 points.

1989 19 points.

1990 19 points.

Individual Champions:

1982 Jeff Adkins

1986 Eric Carter*

1987 Eric Carter

1988 Brian Laird

1989 Jeff Novak/Doug Walter

1990 Mark Wimmer

* Number 3 on the list of Top 20 Conference Performances, 23:51 at Van Cortlandt Park.

Saturday, December 5, 2015

Dan Jordan has landed a coveted track and field adviser position at the IMG Academy in Bradenton Florida. Dan is, of course, the son of long-time Cross Country Coach Teri Jordan who is the current Coach of the Penn State Ability Athletics team. Both will likely be joining us at the next Reunion and Coach Groves Golf Tourney in May!

Friday, December 4, 2015

The AIAW XC Championships started in 1975, but the first All-American Team wasn't chosen until the 1977 race. That happens to be the year that our very own Kathy MillsParker dominated the field. Our 2nd and 3rd team members were very high in the field with Kris Bankes garnering the final of 15 AA positions. But that left out Liz Berry Larsen, the 16th finisher that day! Other scorers that day were Hillary Noden and Mary Rawe (Camp Hill's phenom and future wife of our own Coach extraordinaire Tom Rapp). The sixth and seventh runners were Donna Gardner and Penny Fales.

Tom Rapp, Mary Rawe Rapp with Tom's ex-roommate Larry Mangan.

Here's some bits from the Eastern Kentucky University Special Collections Archive: